This year, Pride Month will mark its 45th anniversary, and to celebrate we're highlighting places of pride. While the Castro is known for its culture of pride in San Francisco, here are locations that extend across the city with significance to LGBT history and culture. Plus, some San Francisco areas that make locals and visitors alike proud of the city.

Cleve Jones has seen and done it all. Having hitchhiked from Phoenix to the gay promised land of San Francisco in 1972, he witnessed the rise of the Castro as a worldwide destination, the life and death of his great friend, Harvey Milk, the decimation of HIV/AIDS, and the birth of marriage equality on the steps of city hall. Despite the accolades, Cleve can be seen hanging out at various spots in the Castro and around the city just like a regular gay guy. GayCities talked to San Francisco's patron saint of the movement about his love for his hometown and where he plans to hang out this Pride season.

On Sept. 24, Folsom Street in San Francisco between Eighth and 13th streets will close down to car traffic and welcome more than 400,000 people to the largest kink and leather event of its kind. If you’ve never attended a Folsom Street Fair, you’ve surely seen photos. But how did we get here?

Learn how San Francisco markets itself to the LGBTQ travel audience from the people who make it happen.